Is it over? Is that it? All that huff and puff of labour leaders; all that boiling point emotions of an enraged public; all that Internet and GSM driven global outrage? Is it all over: all that raised hope of our own “spring”, spring of a new dawn, spring of a country of new values and new morality? Is that it; is it all over?
Those thoughts must have been on the minds of many a youth who had trooped out daily unto the streets of major cities in different parts of the country heeding the call to rise up and assert their sovereignty over a leadership that had lost the plot and drained them of all hope for a brighter future, or of any future for that matter. Those must have been the thoughts on their minds last Monday as the Labour leaders announced that the strike was over and those that have jobs can go back to work, while those who don’t have jobs can go back to the hell that their lives were, well just a worse hell now.
One can only pity those youth, represented and embodied in that unnamed young lady whose voice rang out loud, captured on camera at the Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Park, Lagos and sent all over the world on YouTube. Her words of defiance and expectation still ring in my ears:
“I came here scared,” she began. “I cannot tell you I came here confidently. I came scared of my life, but I came, because I want to see a new Nigeria. I grew up seeing Nigeria without light; I grew up seeing Nigeria without water; I grew up seeing people on the streets, sometimes I’m almost close to tears when I see children roaming about. It’s sad. Our government have failed us. Our parents have failed us because they’ve not spoken. It’s time for us to speak. Look around you; Nigerians are tired! It’s beyond “fuel subsidy”. They use touts, they use people; look at them they are all here today; they are here to speak. Look at them they are tired of being used as mercenaries for the government. We just want the government to stand up and be responsible. If they cannot be responsible, they should resign! It’s only in Nigeria that people do not resign. Why, because they are selfish! My parents stopped me today but I damned the consequences. If I die, I die; but Nigeria has to move!”
Poor girl, how was she to know that Nigeria is not (yet) a country to die for? That if she had died, like the score or more deaths recorded, she would have died in vain? That Nigeria always laughs last at those who have fought (in vain) to bring desired change? Perhaps her parents who tried to stop her knew what she didn’t know. They knew that going by the history of Nigeria – since the failed struggle for Biafra–every fervor for change always ended up divided and torn to shreds on the altar of ethnicity, or call it its name, crude, negative, tribal shenanigans.
Perhaps they remembered that the national struggle to defy the army and defend MKO Abiola’s popular mandate to be president was soon thwarted, turned into a sectional struggle by dominant voices of other ethnic groups. And the pattern had kept repeating itself. Perhaps they knew that as the dominant voices in the North claimed Yar’Adua until death took him away, so would those of Jonathan’s group lay claim to him, warts and all! Some states did not participate in the strike because Jonathan “belongs to them” and cannot do wrong; any protest against his policy is a protest against his person and his people! Some other states did not participate, rumour has it, because they were assured, come 2015 the presidency will be theirs for the asking!
It is a sick and sickening society; ours. Was it not in this country that some big man publicly announced that he had been “dashed” a couple of the country’s oil blocs by his “esprit de corps” military president and by selling off just one of the blocs he had made more money than he knew what to do with and so, from the generosity of his heart, also dashed out $100 million out of the $1 billion he made (you heard right, dollars!) to “charity” only to be hailed for his “uncommon honesty” rather than provoke a national outcry and start a “search and strip” campaign of him and all his ilk?
In an environment such as this, where villainy is upheld as virtue, what is there to expect? Of course, there were clerks and messengers who processed the documents and moved the files for the transactions. Of course, there were officers of state who authorized all along the way. To them, there is moral justification for their pilfering of mere thousands of dollars, even if on a regular weekly or monthly basis, compared to someone who made a billion dollars right before their very eyes, made public righteousness of his donation to charity, and still struts the land as an honourable statesman – chair to many a body and leader of social and religious groups! Yet, I must admit, this man’s loot (for loot it is) is nothing compared to what others loot periodically, and they represent the nation’s moral compass!
It is a sick and sickening country; ours. A country in which common felons, rogues in government, are celebrated and honoured; where those unlucky enough to be caught by the law and sent to wrist-slapping time, come out of jail to the thunderous welcome of their communities – asoebi, drums, gongs and all. Our values are truly warped!
In reality it all boils down to one fact: the country is firmly in the grip of the rich class who know how to ensure there is no enduring unison amongst the poor masses who must remain oppressed, hungry and lost. And sadly, the conscienceless middle class is criminally silent, too engrossed with self- preservation and an eye on their turn in the cookie jar to constitute a cohesive and enduring force against the continuing drift.
Sadly, not much is expected to come out of the noise now being made by the government to look into the abuses of the system and stem corruption. Nothing, for they all along knew about the goings on. Nothing, for they are all part and parcel of it, varying only in the degree. For them it is only time to be less careless and less disdainful in their criminal acts.
The truth, which has often been said and which does not need the wisdom of the biblical Solomon to figure, is that we do not as yet have a nation in which all constituent groups feel a sense of equality; a sense of belonging; a sense of ownership; and a readiness to make desirable sacrifices for its wellbeing and progress.
Unfortunately, for as long as the oil flows with the billions of dollars to be made, any dream that we would wake up one day and get round to fundamentally restructuring the country would remain but just that – a pipe dream! For as long as the petrodollar flows, calls for fundamental restructuring will continue to be sectionalized whilst those who call for it will continue to be demonized. It is our lot; the lot of the black man.
But to that young lady I must return.
If you are still alive, cheer up. My daughter saw the clip and said, “Dad, that’s me”, referring to herself. So, you are not alone. Empowered by the new age technology of instant global communication and social networking, the future is bright and the country is yours to reclaim. Build strong and virile networks across the ethnic divide: of youth that share your vision; youth who reject the Nigeria of us their parents; youth who reject filthy lucre and have no respect for those who acquire or exhibit it; youth who, through their enlightenment and contemporary exposure, hold higher values. They are there, I assure you, in the North, Middle-Belt, East, West, South-South, everywhere.
I may not live to see it but may you have a country you’ll be proud to call yours!
And that’s saying it the way it is!
Photo Credit: Tribune Online